"If we can do it, I think it is a good idea," Supervisor Stan Clark said. "Those plastic bags end up everywhere. They don't decompose. They end up in trees."

A ban would also benefit the cotton industry, said Johnny Parker, a cotton agronomist with the Commonwealth Gin in Windsor.

"The number-one source of contamination for cotton is those plastic bags," Parker said. "I don't have any love for those bags."

San Francisco's City Council last month passed legislation to outlaw bags. It will become the first U.S. city to enact a ban after the mayor signs it into law. The city hopes to increase recycling by mandating that large markets and drug stores offer customers compostable bags made of corn starch or bags made of recyclable paper.

Tom Ivy, chairman of the Isle of Wight board, said he's not sure Isle of Wight has the power to ban the bags because Virginia is a Dillon Rule state. That means cities and counties can only exercise powers granted by the state.

But it's worth looking into, Ivy said, if the bags damage farmers' crops. Cotton is a major crop in Isle of Wight, where farmers grew 19,600 acres of it in 2005 -- the second-highest producer of cotton in the state.

Bags can go through cotton gins, which shred them into pieces that can damage the cotton's quality, Parker said.

If mills consistently see bits of bags in batches of cotton from Virginia, they won't want the state's cotton, Parker said.

That became a problem in 2003 when Hurricane Isabel blew through, sending plastic bags into farm fields.

"We had a tremendous amount of contamination that year," Parker said. "But if you can have less of it than other regions, they'll start preferring our product." *